In many vehicles, systems, and/or other devices, sensors are used to track various performance, operational, and/or status information. For example, some vehicles may include sensors for tracking fuel levels, temperature levels, outside temperatures, oil pressure values, and/or other information. Other systems or devices can include a number of sensors to track information for various purposes.
Civilian and military aircraft often include a host of sensors to track numerous types of data from numerous sources. These sensors include, but are not limited to, engine thrust levels, engine temperatures, altitude, airspeed, flap position, landing gear position, aileron position, location, orientation, other information, combinations thereof, and the like. As is known, operational information associated with aircraft in general, and aircraft propulsion systems in particular, is important to pilots, air crew, ground crews, and airlines. As used herein, an aircraft “propulsion system” can include, but is not necessarily limited to, an engine, one or more inlet nacelles, one or more exit nozzles, thrust reversers, struts, and/or other associated structures and/or devices.
One operation state sometimes tracked for aircraft propulsion systems is a propulsion system temperature, corresponding to a temperature of any portion of the propulsion system including part of, or the entire, undercowl environment. In some aircraft propulsion system temperature monitoring systems, one or more thermal devices are placed in or near one or more components of a propulsion system. A temperature detected by the thermal device is tracked and compared to a set threshold. If the detected temperature exceeds the threshold, an alarm or warning can be reported to an air crew or a ground crew. Some common thermal devices used in aircraft propulsion systems are linear devices that can measure anywhere from two to over twenty feet in length. As such, hot spots along the length of the thermal devices can be averaged out by other areas of the propulsion system.
These thermal devices have limitations, however. In particular, some overheat or fire conditions can be missed due to averaging out of temperatures along the thermal sensors. Additionally, locating high heat, overheat, or fire conditions can be difficult as the devices provide only one measurement for what may be an extended area of the monitored structure or device. Thus, troubleshooting propulsion systems or other structures after occurrence of an alarm condition or state can require teardown of the monitored device and/or guess work to determine a condition that led to the alarm or other actionable operation state. Additionally, current technologies do not allow any ability to adjust the alarm trigger points to account for changing operational conditions, such as external environment or operating demands on the monitored system.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the disclosure made herein is presented.